Riverview Medical Center

FALL 2014

Spirit of Women magazine is a national publication presented to women by hospitals and their physicians. The magazine provides up-to-date, evidence-based healthcare information and promotes our hospitals as leaders in women's health excellence.

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S P I R I T O F W O M E N FA L L 2 014 w w w. s p i r i t o f w o m e n . c o m
H E A L T H C E N T R A L D I E T
SHUTTERSTOCK
Pint-size portions for kids
Stress and health risks
Stress could make a high-fat, high-
sugar diet even more damaging
to your wellbeing: Highly stressed
women who have poor nutrition hab-
its are more prone to health risks than
low-stress women who eat the same
amount of unhealthy food.
That's the finding of research
reported in the journal Psychoneu-
roendrocrinology, which found that
your body's metabolic response to
fat and sugar may differ according
to your stress levels. The study looked
at 61 disease-free women, more
than half of whom were chronically
stressed, caring for a loved one. The
remaining women had calmer lives.
Both groups reported eating high-
sugar, high-fat foods over the course
of a year, and both were evaluated
for biological markers for metabolic
syndrome—abnormalities including
insulin resistance, waistline measure-
ment and visceral fat distribution—
that increase the risk for heart attack,
stroke and diabetes. Stressed women
had more of the markers than their
counterparts who ate poorly but
weren't stressed.
Even though it may be tempting
to soothe yourself with your favorite
foods when you're stressed out, give
your body a break by opting for
healthier choices.
•
Statins no substitute for
a healthy diet
Even if you're taking statin drugs to
lower your cholesterol, you still need
to modify your diet to reduce your
risk of heart disease, say health
experts. But people on statins aren't
as vigilant about eating healthier fare
as they were in the past, according
to a study published in the journal
JAMA Internal Medicine.
Researchers compared statin
users in 1999–2000 with those in
2009–2010, and found that the
earlier group consumed almost
10 percent fewer calories and more
than 14 percent less fat than those a
decade later. People who didn't take
statin drugs didn't have a significant
change in their food intake over
the decade, according to the study
authors, who took their data from
the National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey (NHANES).
Experts advise statin users not to
use the medication as an excuse to
throw caution to the wind when mak-
ing food choices.
•
W
hen adults and children are offered oversized portions of
food, they eat more and consume more calories. But what
happens when kids are allowed to serve themselves, the goal
at many a family dinner table?
Children react to the same food cues as adults, according to a recent
study involving 60 ethnically diverse 4- to 6-year-old kids, published in
the Journal of Obesity.
They dish out more food when using a tablespoon instead of a
teaspoon. And when a large amount of an entrée is available, children
help themselves to more than when a smaller amount of food is pre-
sented, the study reports.
So don't forget to keep tabs on your kids' portion sizes even when
they're old enough to fill their own plates.
•
New insights about
coffee health benefits
In addition to helping you keep your
eyes open in the morning, coffee
may have other ocular benefits.
Raw coffee contains chlorogenic
acid, a strong antioxidant that might
prevent degeneration of the retina,
a thin tissue layer inside the eye,
reports research recently published
in the Journal of Agricultural and
Food Chemistry.
Other potential benefits of drink-
ing coffee include a reduced risk of
Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes,
prostate cancer and age-related
cognitive decline. •